Windows Thin PC RTMs, Final Version Due July 1

Microsoft reports that it has completed development of Windows Thin PC and will make it available to customers beginning July 1.

We are excited to announce that today WinTPC reached its RTM milestone and will become generally available for download on July 1, 2011.

As we’ve been talking about, customers told us that they want an easy way to repurpose their existing PCs as thin clients. WinTPC makes this a reality and plays a part in our broader desktop virtualization strategy, which is to deliver the flexibility to work from everywhere, improve compliance and business continuity, and simplify management so that IT professionals can deliver better service to employees.

With the above goal in mind we created WinTPC to help customers repurpose their PCs as thin clients, thereby driving down the cost of VDI. We used additional feedback gathered from customers in our Community Technology Preview (CTP) to add a few features in the RTM.

Keyboard Filter: WinTPC will have the capability to allow customers to lock certain key combinations, such as Ctrl +Alt + Delete, from being utilized and taking effect on a Windows Thin PC device, thereby providing customers with greater level of security and control over user interaction with their WinTPCs.

International IMEs (Input Method Editor) support: WinTPC will now include the option to support international keyboards.

Key Management Server (KMS)/Multiple Activation Key (MAK): WinTPC will now be able to activate against a customer’s existing KMS server or use MAK keys, which enables quick and easy activation mechanisms that customers already use for their Windows desktops today.